1UP: New Super Mario Bros. U Review: Nintendo's Safe Bet

1UP:You need to understand right up front that New Super Mario Bros. U follows a deliberate style of video game design. It takes players on a tour through all the well-known Mario tropes, but it also tinkers with a few ideas along the way. Naturally, the Princess finds herself kidnapped by the evil Bowser (again), so Mario and friends rush off to rescue her. It's classic -- standard -- stuff. The game's stages follow the same setup you've seen before, too, with a tour that starts in a grassy plain, leads into a desert, a Caribbean paradise filled with Cheep Cheeps, and so forth. But while the well-worn road to rescue Princess Peach may appear mostly unchanged, NSMBU still manages to take a few steps forward, and most of them intentionally tap into your fond memories of Super Mario World.